Josh Benner

Category: Bible

  • Lessons in evangelism. Studying Acts 13:13-26

    Lessons in evangelism. Studying Acts 13:13-26

    Acts chronicles events in the early church. But something else very interesting that we see from Acts is that there are places where we see Paul’s introduction to certain regions to which he would later write the letters which comprise so much of the New Testament. We see it with Galatia in chapters 13 and 14. We see it with Philippi in Acts 16, to name a couple.

    Galatia was a province in Rome. It’s in the central part of modern day Turkey. 

    And Paul was traveling to cities in this Galatian region during his first missionary journey 

    This post is part of a series looking at Paul’s missionary journeys in Galatia.

    Paul arrives in Galatia

    In Acts 13:13 and 14, where we see them first arrive in the Galatian province:

    13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia.

    The text says Paul and his companions. 

    Earlier in chapter 13, it had mentioned that Paul had been traveling with Barnabas and men named Simeon, Lycius, and Manaen. Later on, they were joined by the Apostle Mark (known in this passage as John).

    John Mark has left the group to go to Jerusalem. 

    Next, the verses talk about the route. They leave from Paphos.That’s on the island of Cyprus. They sail by boat to Perga which is in Pamphylia, which is also in the Galatian province. We’re not sure how long they stayed there or what type of ministry they might have engaged in. It gets mentioned in passing. 

    Next, they would have taken the Roman roads to get from Perga to Antioch. 

    And it is there where this book talks about Paul’s missionary activities in the Galatian region. Now we’re getting more into the meat of the story. 

    Second part of verse 14: 

    And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 

    So Paul had been Jewish and converted to Christianity. In the Book of Acts, we see a tactic he often employed was beginning in a new city at the synagogue. Because Paul was ethnically and culturally Jewish, he understood Jewish society and customs. 

    Verse 15:

    15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 

    So he’s at the synagogue service. They’re doing their scripture readings and the Rabbi allows Paul to have the floor. This was often practiced in Jewish synagogues where if a traveling Rabbi or teacher was in attendance, that he would give a message. 

    We see Jesus do this multiple times during his ministry.Paul does the same thing here. 

    Paul preaches in Galatia 

    Paul will utilize the opportunity to talk about the Old Testament and how it points to a Son of David who would be the savior of Israel. 

    But first, he talks about the Exodus in verse 17-20. 

    In four verses, Paul covers 450 years of Israelite history. Giving a broad thumbnail sketch of their forefathers. 

     The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.  19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years.

    Paul stresses that the Israelites had been chosen by God and that it was the Lord himself who had miraculously brought them out of Egypt and led them through their time in the wilderness in pursuit of the Promised Land.  

    The audience knows exactly what Paul is talking about. 

    It would be like if I were telling you about the founding fathers and how they debated and agreed upon they Declaration of Independence in 1776. You know what I’m talking about. It’s at the core of our history. 

    Next, Paul talks about how Israel had a monarchy established. The first king of Israel was Saul and that ends up going poorly as Saul was not a Godly king but his reign paved the way for one who would be. 

    Starting in verse 22, Paul talks about David and this matters because this is where Paul will change his tone and transition into talking about the gospel. 

    For the audience, they’re right there with him so far. He’s preaching to the choir. 

    Verse 22:

    22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 

    Paul arrives at David. The man after God’s heart. And in our passage, Paul says to this synagogue in Galatia: 

    23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

    There was a prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:12-14 about a future offspring from the line of David who would establish an eternal kingdom. 

    12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

    Paul is telling this audience that Jesus is the promised Son of David. Continuing in our passage. Paul speaks personally to the audience. 

    Verses 26:

    26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

     He calls them his brothers. 

    He calls them sons of the family of Abraham. 

    He is pointing to the shared heritage that Jews and Christians both have through Abraham. 

    For both Jews and Christians, Abraham is the patriarch of the faith. 

    He is the one through whom the Lord had made his covenant promises of land, offspring, and blessing. 

    But through Christ, we see the greatest fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. He is the one who brings true and eternal blessings. He is the the true offspring of Abraham through whom the nations of the world would be blessed. And he is the one who brings his people to the true promised land: the new heaven, and the new earth, and the new Jerusalem. 

    Abraham was the Father of Israel. The father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, whose line led to David and ultimately to Jesus. 

    Abraham matters for all of those reasons but he also matters because of his faith. In Genesis, when God made his promises, Abraham believed and that belief, that faith, that trust in God was what was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 

    In the New Testament, in Galatians and in other writings, the faith of Abraham will be pointed to as an example for Christians as the basis for our justification before God. It is a matter of trusting in Jesus, believing in his gospel, knowing that he is Lord and savior and that by that faith, God justifies us. 

    In our passage, we have Abraham, revered among the Jewish people, and Paul is saying that as the people of Abraham: to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

    A lesson in evangelism

    We see something important in this passage. I can’t stress this enough but Paul is speaking to these Galatians on terms they’ll understand. 

    They might not know who Jesus is or why he matters. So Paul starts by talking about what he knows they’ll know and showing how that points to Jesus. 

    I can’t help but wonder if this disconnect has caused part of the challenge with evangelism in our society today. That we assume people know more than they do about Jesus. 

    Even for a person who goes to church, they might not know the gospel. Not all churches preach the gospel.

    I’ve mentioned before that surveys have been done and more Americans can list off more ingredients on a McDonald’s Big Mac than commandments in the Ten Commandments. 

    I read a survey this year where people answered in response to their readership of the Bible. Just 11% of respondents said they read the Bible everyday. 

    Half read from their Bibles once or twice a year…or less. 

    We can’t assume people know the Bible and we can’t assume people know the gospel. That’s part of why personal evangelism is so important. Sharing the gospel with people. Sharing Jesus with people. 

    And it’s gotten worse for younger generations. And that becomes a viscous cycle. Because the previous generations did not teach their kids the Bible and now they don’t know the Word of God. And you cannot teach what you do not know and so the problem gets worse.

    Paul at the Areopagus

    In Acts 17, Paul is speaking in Athens to a totally different group of people and he has a totally different approach to sharing the gospel. 

    There instead of talking to Jewish people, he’s talking to Greeks who believed in a pantheon of gods. 

    Paul doesn’t lay into them, he doesn’t yell at them, he doesn’t just say “you’re wrong, I’m right.” He explains to them.

    Acts 17:22-23:

    22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

    He actually commands the people for being very religious. 

    He makes light of the fact that the people were so religious and believed in so many gods that they even had an altar to an unknown god in case they missed one. 

    I don’t have time to unpack the entire section but Paul will talk to this audience of the transcendence of God, how God is the creator of all things and Paul will point to the Lord as a God who judges and the savior he has sent who has risen from the dead. 

    In 17:32-34, we see the response to Paul’s message:

    32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed

    So once again, we see Paul beginning with where his audience is and then skillfully leading the conversation to the resurrection of Jesus and to the gospel.

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  • The covenant with Abram. Studying Genesis 12

    The covenant with Abram. Studying Genesis 12

    In Genesis, we see three acts of divine judgment each followed by acts of divine grace. 

    We see the curse of the original sin which brings forth death but the Lord also makes a promise of ultimate victory to come from an offspring of the woman (Genesis 3:15). 

    The next major divine judgment is the flood where God wipes out the earth and all of its inhabitants, save for Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark. But then we also see this event followed by another divine blessing as the Lord makes his covenant with Noah. In this sense, Noah becomes like another Adam figure in a reconstituted world. 

    In Genesis 11, we see another major sin event: the Tower of Babel as a prideful world tries to build a monument to their own glory. The Lord brings confusion to the people in Genesis 11. But we are also introduced to Abram in that same chapter and it would be Aram through whom the Lord would make a great covenant. 

    In this sense, Abram too will be another Adam figure who is the father of a new humanity, a people of God and through whom the Lord will ensure divine blessings to the world and through whom he will bring the ultimate blessing of the Lord Jesus (Galatains 3:16). 

    In Genesis 11, Abram is introduced as a son of Terah. We’re also told that he has a wife named Sarai and that she is barren. This introduces a theme of barrenness that will also come up in numerous future Bible stories including with Rachel and Rebekah as well as with Hannah in First Samuel and with Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke. 

    Genesis 11 ends by saying that Abram and his family had settled in Haran. 

    Genesis 11:31-32: 

    ​​31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. 

    Genesis 12 hits the ground running with the Lord calling Abram away from the land where they had settled. 

    Genesis 12:1-3: 

    Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

    The Lord makes three promises to Abram. 

    A great nation

    As Adam was the first man in the world, as Noah was the leader of a new world and the one chosen by God to be spared (along with his family), Abram is also uniquely positioned as the one man through whom the Lord makes this covenant. As Thomas Schreiner notes in the Short Studies of Biblical Theology of Covenant, the rest of the world was still opposed to God when he made his covenant promise with Abram. 

    As with all covenants in the Bible, it is totally at the initiative of God that the covenant is made. The Hebrew word translate for “covenant” is not found in Genesis 12 but it is found in chapters 15 and 17 in similar contexts of talking about the same promises. For that reason, it is appropriate to view chapter 12 as the beginning section of this covenant. 

    In verse 2, the Lord promises to make Abram a great nation. This promises will also be elaborated upon in Genesis chapters 15 and 17. The promise of being a great nation will imply two things. 

    In chapter 11, a kingdom had just fallen at Babel. But here, the Lord tells Abram that he will be a great nation. It’s because the Lord was establishing a nation that would be dedicated to him and set apart for the purposes of God. As Schreiner notes, “the word nation also implies offspring, for Abraham couldn’t be a great nation without offspring” (Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, Page 43). 

    In chapters 15 and 17, the Lord would also promise that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars (15:5) and that Abram would be a father of many nations (17:4) and that kings will come from him (17:6). 

    Abram would also later be gold that his offspring would possess the gates of their enemies (22:17). This victory links the offspring of Abram ot the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 who would defeat the serpent. 

    In the New Testament, we see that this promise is fulfilled in Christ. 

    Galatians 3:16: 

    the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ

    We see a further elaboration of the political natures of God’s promise to Abraham. 

    Genesis 28:14: 

    Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

    And again in Genesis 35:11 where we see a furthering of the promise: 

    God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. 

    And all of this happens through a man and a woman who are barren and have no children when we’re first introduced to them! 

    Land

    God had also promised land to Abram. 

    Schreiner notes that if Abram is like a new Adam, then the Promised Land is like a New Eden. 

    In Genesis 15:18, we’re told of the parameters of the Promised Land: 

    18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

    They arrive in the land under the leadership of Joshua.  

    We seem to see a realization of these promises during the reign of King Solomon. 1 Kings 4:20-21: 

    20 Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. 21  Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. 

    We saw a picture of what God’s promises were supposed to look like but the people sinned and lost it. God was still faithful to his people. 

    Blessing

    Abram was told that he would be a blessing. Schreiner points out that the covenant was always intended to be a blessing for all of the nations, not just Israel. God would bless his people but also bring blessings to the world through his people. 

    In the New Covenant age, we see the blessings to the world through the gospel and as a result of the cross of Christ. 

  • Sermon: The sun and the match – John 13:18-30

    Sermon: The sun and the match – John 13:18-30

    Jesus is at the last supper with his disciples. In this passage, we learn that it’s Judas who will betray Jesus but – with the exception of John – the rest of the disciples are oblivious.

    Sermon manuscript

  • Grace vs Legalism. Studying John 5:10-14

    Grace vs Legalism. Studying John 5:10-14

    A conflict between grace and legalism  

    In John chapter 5, Jesus heals a man who had never walked. It’s a miraculous sign which points to the power of Jesus. But we see him confronted by the Pharisees, who were experts in the Law of the Old Testament involving the fact that he had healed the man on the Sabbath. 

    The religious figures will disapproved of the timing of this miracle. As soon as this healed man picks up his bed, religious figures are ready to swoop in and bring judgment on him for violating the Sabbath. 

    John 5:10:

    10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 

    Legalism without grace 

    The Pharisees are more concerned for their man made laws and judging this man for breaking the Sabbath. 

    In his commentary on John, Richard Phillips argues that an inevitable result of legalistic religion is that it treats people without compassion. 

    They’re not rejoicing in this miracle, they’re not glorifying God for this man who can now walk. 

    All they care about is that he has broken the law, in their eyes. 

    Legalism vs License  

    The Law of the Old Testament is good. 

    But men adding laws onto God’s law is not good. And it’s worse when we expect people to live based on extra-Biblical rules. 

    I’m not undermining things that the Bible commands. For someone who’s a professing Christian, expecting, encouraging, and exhorting them to live based on Biblical principles and values is not legalism. 

    But whether or not carrying a mattress on the Sabbath counted as work is another matter entirely. 

    In trying so hard to defend the Bible, they had taken themselves away from the Bible. In trying so hard to compel obedience to the Law, they had lost sight of the Spirit of the Law. 

    During his earthly ministry, Jesus is involved with several controversies regarding his various healings and activities on the Sabbath. In Mark 2:27, Jesus says: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 

    And the point was that God had given us the Sabbath as a blessing and a way to have one day in seven that was totally devoted to him and that was set apart and scared.

    It’s easy to make rules. It’s easy to give people lists of things to do and not do. And you can follow all of the extra rules to the Sabbath and yet have no love for God. 

    During the ministry of Jesus, he will confront the Pharisees, the people who were experts in the Law but yet missed the true heart and purpose of the scriptures concerning what they’re truly about and what they point to, namely, Jesus. 

    In the prophets, Israel’s failure to keep the Sabbath was a source of divine judgment. They responded by going too far the other way in thinking that their justification was in observance to that and to their obedience to the rest of the law. 

    But to again remind us of the passage in Isaiah 1:13, God does not desire vain offerings. Just because you’re following the rules outwardly, but you’re cold and distant to God inwardly means nothing. 

    That is the great mistake of legalism. 

    And they lost sight of the greater commands of the Bible, loving God and loving people, and when the Lord healed this man, they could not appreciate that. 

    So you have the Pharisees and the man who has just been healed. 

    Verse 11, the man responds. 

     11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” 

    He simply refers to Jesus as “the man who healed me.” 

    He also deflects attention from himself to Jesus. This can be interpreted as if this man is actually blaming Jesus for a supposed violation of the Sabbath since it was Jesus who told him to pick up his bed. 

    Either way, the Pharisees are quick to take their attention off of this man. They’re blind to the miraculousness of what Jesus has just done. 

    Verses 12-13: 

    12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”  

    13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

    Jesus has already disappeared into the crowd. 

    Verse 14 again moves the story forward:

    14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

    Verse 14 is very interesting. 

    Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you? 

    Is it saying that this man’s previous handicap was the result of his sin? It’s possible, but not necessarily what the text is saying. 

    In John 9, it’s the story of Jesus healing a man who had been born blind – one thing we learn from that passage is that not all of our suffering is directly related to a sin that we specifically committed.

    That sometimes happens. We see that in the Book of Acts where Ananias and Sapphira are judged and struck dead. 

    And certainly we are all sinful and live in a fallen and sinful world. 

    But in establishing a theology of suffering, we mustn’t think that all human suffering is directly a punitive response to a sin that a person committed and that had a person not committed that sin, they would therefor never have suffered. 

    Suffering is part of life for all people. So what does Jesus mean then? 

    Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you?

    Is he saying if the man commits one more sin, something worse will happen? 

    I don’t believe so. 

    Consider for a moment a few other verses from this gospel. 

    John 3:18: 

    18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God

    John 8:23-24, Jesus is again talking to Pharisees: 

    “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

    unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins

    Jesus is talking about people having faith in who he is and the eternal consequences for rejecting him. 

    So I return again to our passage. 

    Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

    What’s the worst sin we can commit? 

    Not believing and trusting in Jesus as the Son of God. 

    And where he talks of sinning no more so that nothing worse may happen, he’s talking about something far worse than being paraylyzed for 38 years. He’s talking about spending all of eternity facing the wrath and judgment of God for not believing. 

    This passage tells us about superstitions. People going to the pool in Jerusalem in the hopes that the waters would heal them. Superstitious practices are not our hope. 

    This passage tells us about legalism. The pharisees added rules on top of rules. Following rules is not our hope. 

    Our hope is in following Jesus who calls us to sin no more. Yes, Jesus wants us to live lives of holiness and devotion to him. But more than anything else, we are called to trust God and live by faith and live as a result of that faith. 

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  • The Tower of Babel. Studying Genesis 11

    The Tower of Babel. Studying Genesis 11

    Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. 

    -Genesis 11:1-9 

    It’s amazing how alike we are from one generation to another. In Genesis 11, people attempt to build a tower to reach the heavens so that they can make a name for themselves. 

    The flood has just happened, and we so quickly see that humanity has not learned its lesson in the Tower of Babel incident. 

    In ancient times, Pharaoh’s built monuments to themselves in the pyramids. In modern times, if someone is wealthy enough, they’ll have a campus name a building or a scholarship after themselves. Most of us don’t have the money to pay for such monuments, but there are lots of other ways we try to make our own names great. Some do it through bragging. I’ve known people who seemed pathologically incapable of doing a good deed and not telling others what they did. Social media is perhaps the greatest tool for self-aggrandizement ever invented. We can curate a specific image of ourselves and our lives.

    In our sin, humanity attempts to build our own structures to get to God. The good news of the gospel is that we have a savior who has come from heaven to us. 

    This is the third major act of sin we’ve seen to this point in the Book of Genesis. Certainly, there is the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden in Genesis 3. The response to that is God’s promise of a coming offspring from the woman.

    15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, 

    and between your offspring and her offspring; 

    he shall bruise your head, 

    and you shall bruise his heel.” 

    -Genesis 3:15

    The second major act of sin is the sinful world which led to God’s divine judgment through bringing about the flood. God’s gracious response was saving Noah, his family, and the animals; but it was also the covenant which the Lord made with Noah. 

    The Tower of Babel is humanity’s third major act of sin. Once again, we see both judgment and grace. The judgment is the destruction of the tower and the confusion of the languages. We see the grace through a man who will be introduced at the end of this chapter. 

    26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 

    27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. 

    31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. 

    -Genesis 11:26-32

    Man continued to sin, even after receiving grace, and so the Lord would call Abram and make a new covenant with Abram that would be administered through faith. 

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